Love Life

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In Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s rarely staged, self-styled “vaudeville in two acts” from 1948, Sam and Susan seem at first like an ordinary neighborhood couple from just up the way. If their marriage isn’t the happiest, at least there are other compensations; neither of them has aged a minute since 1791. In this early example of a concept musical, the twosome weather a series of social changes over an American century and a half—in industry, suffrage, technology, transit, and its associated temptations. Weill and Lerner note the impact of each on the central relationship and the definition of marriage itself. Musical-film fans will note that Lerner recycled the rueful reminiscences of “I Remember It Well” in the score of Gigi. Broadway actor Victoria Clark worked with a Duke musical theater class on this workshop production; tickets are free, but reservations are required. —Byron Woods